Curb Your Authoritarianism? The 2016 Conventional Wisdom Thread (Elections, Part 6)

important oppty to pick up the boring vote

GOP conventions produce more memorable moments. I'll probably tell my kids about Clint Eastwood talking to a chair but I can't remember fuckall about any democratic conventions except "John Kerry reporting for duty."

makes u think

the debates shd be interesting shdnt take much from her for him to blow his top

saw someone suggest she shd challenge him to a debate every week for the rest of the way which is a pretty ingenious idea imo, i wld up the stakes tho and make the challenge during a debate right at a moment when hes really mad

http://cache.emirates247.com/polopoly_fs/1.330331.1452333062!/image/image.jpg

what are the odds trump even participates in the debates? 50%?

hes got to there no way to dodge if he does its over

yeah his path to victory does not lie through "refusing to appear on television", HRC would cheerfully go on with Gary Johnson and tag-team him in absentia

'if he feels like he's been respected' probably

omg bc of morbs i googled an old gore pic

http://blog.debate.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/youngtipperandalgore.jpg

GOP conventions produce more memorable moments. I'll probably tell my kids about Clint Eastwood talking to a chair but I can't remember fuckall about any democratic conventions except "John Kerry reporting for duty."

― socka flocka-jones (man alive), Wednesday, July 20, 2016 4:47 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I feel like that same convention might have had some sort of speech by Barack Obama.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwunKUL3RBo

I can see Trump ranting about not believing a word Crooked Hillary says and therefore the debates are pointless.

I bet he'll do the first debate, but if it doesn't go well, I can see him refusing to do the other ones (after going on a rant about how the media is full of liars in the pocket of crooked hillary)

Donald Trump Jr. on the final Gingrich/Christie/Pence VP choice. "We don't need two Donald Trumps out there competing to be Donald Trump."

― brimstead, Wednesday, July 20, 2016 4:39 PM (57 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

love that this comes from the literal second Donald Trump

― based stress reduction (crüt), Wednesday, July 20, 2016 2:40 PM (25 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

a cry for help

― based stress reduction (crüt), Wednesday, July 20, 2016 2:40 PM (24 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

irl lol at this

during the debate can Hillary just ask him "do you know how many amendments there are?"

I can totally imagine Trump skipping the debates entirely. I mean, why would he even want to participate? He's got very little to gain by giving Hillary even the chance to look awesome compared to this rotten carrot.

i can see that too, but trump loves being on tv, and he did basically "win" all the GOP debates (whatever that means). With that in mind, I don't think he'll sit out the first debate.

If he refuses, then he is afraid of a WOMAN.

I read that as "shit out the first debate."

lol ppl u cant quit the debates unless youre just resigned to losing i guess, its liking wearing a sign around yr neck that says coward for the rest of the campaign

it wld not be like trump skipping one of the 25 debates during the primaries there are 3 of these things scheduled

tho even that turned into a minor fire trump had to put out

Like if Trump signs on for three and decides to stop showing up after one it's not like Hilary's not going to go up there and answer Gwen Ifil's questions

its not like hillary and her whole team wldnt clown him for it every day for the rest of the campaign, which just to compound things this is a guy whos entire message strategy and platform is "winning"

i mean its a non starter folks forget about it!

challenging him to more debates then clowning him for refusing wld be super tite tho

btw ppl online have been trying to figure out if this fired speechwriter is a real person for hours

my guess she is real, not really fired

she's a Democrat apparently!

shes the saboteur

need to know who inserted the rickroll tho thats the real smoking gun

this campaign has some good conspiracy theories http://www.inc.com/jeff-bercovici/peter-thiel-donald-trump-crazy.html

i suspect that trump will do one debate then embarrass himself trying to find excuses to avoid the others.

by all rights the debates should be his waterloo, and there's no way he'll come off well, but i can also imagine clinton fucking them up and making it all a wash.

the media will seize on one or two dumb misstatements by clinton and put them in the same news piece as all the nonsense that flows from trump's mouth and talk about how "both candidates had their strong and weaker moments."

It's much easier to imagine Obama stumbling (as he did once in 2012) than HRC. She's prepared for this shit.

my feeling is the debates will prob go clintons way and theres a YUGE downside risk for trump

Agree with lag∞n, skipping even one debate is untenable. McCain tried to wrap the idea around national duty during the bank meltdown, and he was ridiculed for even that. Multiply that exponentially for Trump.

and let's not forget: Trump's audiences want him to debate Clinton and destroy her, if possible handcuff her and take her to jail himself.

summary execution

yeah, Trump doesn't have a So You Think You Can Dance-style battle of attrition to use to his benefit, it's 1 on 1 now (1 on 2 if you count Gary Johnson, but that mofo isn't going to do no 8% at election time, Nader was polling high too before election).

he's probably got a higher floor than he should have with his fans who will follow him off a cliff, but the undecideds are going to run screaming (or stay home).

Hillary wins 562 to -24

(xpost) Just like Republicans were blood-crazy to see Gingrich, um, put Obama in his place once and for all.

the best will be the vice presidential debate [two guys clearing their throats for an hour]

Trump's only getting a few points of a bump now due to the RNC and the craziness of the last few weeks, but give the polls some time to catch up with the noise of this week and the post-DNC bump and it'll be back to massacre-town

Dem convention should just be three days of replaying the RNC on a big screen with the guys from MST3K doing audio.

Didn't Comedy Central do something like this back in the '92 or 96 seasons? Also, you'd have to get Joel back to hosting as Mike Nelson(and his wife) have reportedly somewhat more disagreeable political leanings

ya polls not really worth much til both conventions been over for ~a week

god i hate Thiel. there is a lot of people i hate in this circus, but Thiel grates me the most. Trump will end up losing, and the other politicians have a limited influence on my life (I don't live in the US), but Thiel is inescapable and it makes me feel so dirty.

Also, Trump will do all the debates b/c there's no way he will miss out primetime network coverage, but the GOP types will be gaming the refs harder than they ever did four years ago no matter who asks the candidates what questions and how milquetoast they phrase it

http://giphy.com/gifs/mashable-xTiTndCIut7o7OpEL6